Measuring patient temperature is a common first step in diagnosing illnesses. Physicians commonly use a variety of methods for determining patient temperature including, for example, obtaining temperature measurements with a thermometer. While thermometers utilizing mercury have been in existence for many years, modern thermometers typically employ one or more electronic sensors configured to measure patient temperature. Such sensors may take one or more measurements over a relatively short period of time. Based on these measurements, the thermometer may generate a predicted internal and/or core temperature of the patient. In generating this predicted temperature, the thermometer may make one or more assumptions regarding the temperature of the environment in which the thermometer is being utilized. For example, it is common practice to insert at least a portion of the thermometer into a cover prior to taking temperature measurements. Known thermometers may then sense the ambient temperature, and use this sensed ambient temperature in determining a patient's core temperature.
Determining a patient's core temperature in this way may produce inaccurate results. For example, the covers utilized with such thermometers are often stored in locations having an ambient temperature different than the ambient temperature of the examination room, doctor's office, and/or other patient temperature measurement locations. As a result, variations in the temperature of the cover itself may cause significant error in the patient temperature determination. In an effort to minimize the effect of such error, modern thermometers may utilize algorithms that estimate this divergence from ambient temperature. Such estimates, however, may introduce additional error into the patient temperature determination, thereby reducing the accuracy of such determinations.
The exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure are directed toward overcoming the deficiencies of known thermometers described above.